FYI - The broken glass article by James Q. Wilson is available here: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print...broken-windows

Odd coincidence that I downloaded it two days ago after reading a short article in last week's Science. That one-pager basically said that when people see some petty crimes (littering, speeding, etc), they are more likely to engage in those crimes and to go one step further (stealing, vandalism, criminal speeding, wreckless driving). The article referenced the Wilson article from 1982.

I always thought that the view expressed in that one-pager was common sense. Apparently, it is the cutting edge of criminology. As someone who has apparently been on the cutting edge for years, I think a large part of the drug problem is simply what we have allowed to become societal norms. Personal responsibility died many years ago in this country. We really should give it a proper burial.

The root of the problem is not demand. It's deeper than that. The root of the problem is the catalyst for the demand. Drug use is acceptable and glorified. You can turn on the television during prime time network broadcasts and see individuals joke about marijuana use and discuss it as if it is normal. This is even more so in the movies (Friday, Cheech and Chong, White Castle - about 100 others, at least). Stoners are common main characters in movies that appeal to teens and post-teens (those in their 20s still living off mom and dad). Combine that acceptability and glamorization with the complete lack of self-control that most teens and post-teens have and neither laws nor enforcement are going to do anything to stem demand. Laws are useless if the society does not accept them. Drive down any road in this country to see that proven - how many people actually abide by traffic laws? Most are in such a habit of breaking laws that they probably couldn't drive 5 miles without breaking several even if they put their minds to it.

As per the Science article, when you see others doing "soft" drugs like marijuana and shrooms, they are more likely to go ahead and try "harder" drugs like cocaine and LSD. I saw it on a wide scale at colleges in Washington DC and Boston. Clean cut kids from middle class and upper-middle class families think being pot heads is a fun way of life. Eventually it gets old. Progressing from cigarettes to coke would be a pretty dramatic step. One is legal, but merely unhealthy, whereas the other is illegal, mind-altering, and flat out dangerous. But progressing from pot to coke is more of a baby step. Both are illegal, addictive, mild-altering substances. By their senior years, the kids are experimenting with coke and LSD (crack apparently has a ghetto image to it, but coke is fashionable and LSD is just curious). And most of them are pretty open about admitting to it, joking about it, and even bragging about it so long as you're not their job interviewer and you don't know their parents.

I don't see see demand slowing unless society changes in a way that makes drug use as unfashionable as having a large carbon footprint. And making "soft" drugs even more permissible is likely to detach much of the stigma from "harder" drugs. It seems that we can continue fighting a lost war on drugs or acquiesce and get used to even more drug use.

I'm one of the oldest people in my law school class and one of the youngest in my church - I can't help but think that there is some significance to that.